Council tries Plan B in WBW brawl which involves law change

EDITORIAL: State Government intransigence has met Fraser Coast council stubbornness and put an end to the council's bid to take back control of Wide Bay Water.

The State's refusal to bend over an exemption to the $65 million stamp duty it would have gleaned from the move, means WBW will remain a local government-owned corporation for another two and a half years - when the council can resume it as a commercial business unit of council without any stamp duty.

So that's that.

The council will now pursue Plan B: getting the state to change the law so councillors may sit on the board of a LGOC.

It's been impossible to get a clear estimate of how much the council's persistent push for the takeover has cost ratepayers, both in the to-and-fro and in the loss of savings so far from planned shared services - which will go ahead anyway.